Fostering Reading in Children

I, like many other people, am a fan of Harry Potter. I will forever say that the book series is what got me back into reading at the age of 13 after I had hit a slump after reading all of Roald Dahl's books and finding nothing else that I was particularly interested in. I started with book four, had no idea what was going on to begin with, but found the story so enthralling that I continued to read until I was hooked.

My Aunt thankfully had all the books that were out at the time and I was able to borrow them to read the entire series. That year I think I read all four books four times, in between reading books for school and reading other books I found in the High School library. Mum saw my love for the series and bought a set for my birthday that year, which were all re-read again by Easter. I luckily didn’t have long to wait until book five came out and I saved all my money to be able to buy it before talking my mother into getting up early so I could get to the shop the moment it opened to get my hands on a copy.

That would set the precedent for the remaining books. Book six was such a long wait and once again I saved up all my money to get my hands on it the moment the store opened. When book seven was due out, my entire art class was in a buzz and we had one of our classmates who worked at the local target put our names down so we would all be able to get our hands on a copy. She returned to class the next day and happily told us that she had been informed that they had enough copies of the book that we didn’t need to put our names down.

When that Saturday morning came, I broke my normal routine and got up early so Mum and I could drive the 30 minutes into town and get my hands on a copy. I had saved up all my money (which had been a hard feat considering that 17-year-old me didn’t have a job) but had come up short by five dollars. As I waited in line I turned to my Mum and asked her if she could lend me the five dollars I needed and promised to pay her back.

Instead of saying no or agreeing to that, Mum just smiled and told me that she had been planning on buying me to book the entire time. You see, the previous times that I had saved Mum hadn’t had the extra cash to buy those copies for me, but she had made sure to put the money away this time so that she could buy me the book. There was only one condition – I was to give her chapter by chapter updates of what was happening. I eagerly agreed and Mum handed over her bank card to pay the thirty dollars.

The thing I love the most about my Mum is that she did whatever she could to foster a love of reading in me and my brothers. She made sure that we borrowed from the school library and that we went to the public library during the school holidays. She got interested in what we were reading and would ask us about it. I can even remember many times that she would allow me to stay up later than her to continue to read a book that I was invested in because I was so close to the end. You see, she was a bookworm and wanted to inspire the same love of reading in me and my brothers as she did. These days she is so busy that she will listen to an audiobook instead of reading but her love for the written word has not diminished and she passed it on to me and one of my brothers.

Her love for books was not the only thing that my mother passed onto me, she also passed on her want to encourage other children to read. With my nanny kids I always made sure that we would read during the day and it’s something that I hope to encourage in AJ as well. Right now, she often drifts off in the middle of her bottles at night for us to get into a book, but soon I hope to begin adding storytime to our nightly routine.

What I love the most about encouraging kids to read is that you yourself don’t have to be a bookworm, you just have to show an interest in it and I have a few tips on how even the smallest bookwork can foster reading with their children.

 Start Young

There is a lot of evidence that shows that when you start reading to your child from a young age, it helps to develop their language and literacy skills. Many people may say that you can start reading at six months but I personally believe that even if they can’t focus on the pages, reading from the very beginning of their lives gives them an amazing head start. Currently AJ falls asleep very easily when she is eating so reading a book to her is off the table, however, that doesn’t stop me from using other methods until we have some longer awake times.

Audiobooks that read children’s books are great to have playing in the background while you’re feeding. I currently am listening to a D&D podcast called the Adventure Zone as the storytelling in it is just as amazing as if a novel was being read. The book you’re listening to doesn’t have to be a children’s book, I know a few people who read adult fantasy books out loud while they were feeding as it interested them and it still counted as reading for their baby. If you don’t want to do that, YouTube has got many read-a-loud children’s books channels available that you can have playing on your phone as you get your little one ready for bed or just have them on over the course of the day.

Once your little one gets bigger, you can start getting their attention using touch and feel books like the Usborne series “That’s not my…”. The textures in those books are a great way to incorporate sensory play into literacy and it gets them interested in what is being read to them. Over time you slowly progress from board books to picture books to young readers and before you know it, you and your little one are sitting reading chapter books.

Incorporate Reading into Your Nightly Routine

Did you know that it’s not a good idea to be on a phone or tablet or watch TV before you go to bed? The lights from all these can overstimulate thebrain and make it harder to fall asleep. Reading however does the opposite. It allows the brain to slowly shut down and get ready to quiet down and allow the person to go to sleep. It’s why it’s suggested that you read a book before they go to sleep.

The book you read doesn’t have to be very long and you don’t have to read a full chapter, it just has to be enough for your little one to relax so their bodies can slide off into dreamland a lot easier. The number of books or pages you read is entirely up to you and your child.

You Don’t Have to Buy Your Books

Let’s face it, books can be expensive. Even books on kindle can rack up the dollars and before you know it you’ve spent $100. However, you don’t have to buy your books in order to read to your child.

The public library is an amazing resource that is there to be used to foster reading. The books they have on offer are there for the borrowing and all you need to do is sign up for a card and bring them back within two or three weeks, depending on the library. If they are late, don’t fret, you can still borrow more books but there may be a small fine that is kept on a tab. However, many libraries are starting to rethink this approach to late books and others have programs like “food for fines” where at certain times of the year you bring in canned goods to have the fines on your card removed.

What is also great about the library is that you’re not stuck reading the same books over and over again. You return the books from one week and go home with a bunch of new ones, so the stories never get boring. Libraries are also amazing at keeping new books coming in through their doors. They often pre-order books in a series to ensure that they have them on their shelves very quickly. So if you and your child do get hooked on the current hot book series, your library will have the new book as soon as it becomes available and all you have to do is put your name down on a waiting list.

Share the Load

Some kids just don’t like reading longer books. Whether its because they don’t like the subject matter or the number of words on a page is intimidating for them, sometimes they do better when you’re there to help share the load.

Sharing the load doesn’t mean that you do all the reading, it means that you take it in turns to read. One person reads a page, then the next person reads a page and it repeats. This allows your child to still read like they need to, but they also get to enjoy being read to, which is sometimes something that they love more than they let on.

Don’t Gatekeep Your Child’s Reading

We all remember getting books in school and hating them. I know I had a few books that I would never have chosen for myself if I found them in the library. The same goes for the readers that children get when they are learning to read, sometimes half the battle there is that the child just isn’t interested in the subject.

Knowing this, try not to stop your child from reading something that they have an interest in. Often the most stubborn child who claims they hate reading is only that way because they aren’t being allowed to read books that they have an interest in. I’ve worked with a couple of families where when we were going to the library, I have been asked not to borrow chapter books that are about fairies and mermaids as the parents saw them as something not worth reading. The thing you need to remember is that while you may not want to read that subject matter, your child, on the other hand, may want to and it may just be the thing to get them interested.

Comic books are often treated this way as well but what many people don’t realise is that many comic books actually contain language that is harder for the reader than other books for that age bracket. Children who read comic books often have a lot better reading comprehension compared to their counterparts who don’t read them regularly. There is actually an amazing article all about it by Sarah Lindenfeld Hall on parents.com that explains it a lot better. You can find it here.

So, despite how much you may hate that your child is reading Emily Rhoda’s books or Iron Man comics, allowing them to continue to read these things actually allows them to be interested in what they are reading. From there you may be able to get them interested in something else, like Enid Blyton, but the moment that you step in and say they can’t read something because of your own beliefs about the subject matter is the moment that you start to push them away from wanting to read. Sure, you do have to make sure that it’s age-appropriate but don’t stop them from reading something just because you don’t like it. Reading a Spiderman comic could very well lead the way for them to read Lord of the Rings later on.

What books do you like to read with your children?